RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Faced with the current health crisis in Manaus (Amazonas State), as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, opposition parties on Friday, January 15th, decided to lodge a new motion to impeach President Jair Bolsonaro.
In a note, Rede, PSB, PT, PCdoB, and PDT parties mention the practice of “serial crimes of accountability” as impeachable offenses are denominated in Brazil, by the President, “which resulted in the asphyxiating pain of Amazonas and thousands of Brazilian families.”
The city of Manaus is experiencing a dramatic situation. The healthcare system is collapsing with the surge in Covid-19 cases.
Hospitalizations are breaking records, health facilities have run out of oxygen tanks, such that healthcare workers are carrying supplies in their own cars. Patients are being transferred to other states, the number of burials in one day has broken records, cemeteries are packed and cold storage units have been installed. In Amazonas, the rolling average of deaths climbed 183% in the seven days ended on Thursday.
Opposition parties are calling for the immediate return to work of the Legislative Branch to discuss measures that could help minimize the healthcare crisis in Manaus. The National Congress is in recess and should not restart its activities before February.
“The President of the Republic should be held politically and criminally liable for leaving Amazonas without oxygen, for sabotaging research and vaccination campaigns, for discouraging the wearing of masks and encouraging the use of ineffective medications, for spreading misinformation, in addition to violating the constitutional pact between the federal government, states and municipalities,” the parties state in a note.
Yesterday, January 14th, Federal Supreme Court (STF) Justice Ricardo Lewandowksi ordered the Ministry of Health to submit a plan to tackle the crisis in Manaus within 48 hours.
The portfolio should detail in the document the strategies that are being drawn up or already executed to face the emergency situation, detailing actions, projects, and partnerships, in addition to providing deadlines for the implementation of measures and resources involved.
According to the decision, the action plan must be updated every two days, “while the exceptional situation persists”.
Lewandowksi also ordered the government to “immediately promote all actions within its reach to address the very severe health crisis in Manaus,” providing local healthcare facilities with “oxygen and other medical-hospital supplies so they can provide prompt and adequate care to their patients”.
Earlier, in an interview with Jovem Pan radio, President Jair Bolsonaro said that the STF stripped him of his power to take action in the pandemic by preventing the federal government from interfering in state decisions on Covid. In the same decision on the action plan, Lewandowski stressed that the sharing of powers between the federal government, states, and municipalities “does not exempt the federal government from planning and promoting permanent protection against public calamities”.
Source: InfoMoney